BY WILLIAM MACLEAY, F.L.S., &C. 131 



I believe this to be a mistake. I am confident that L. aenea is 

 an inhabitant of Norfolk Island only, and I have good reason to 

 believe that Latreille's L. cuprea is the female of L. aurata, Latr., 

 and that Eiichson's L. viridis is another species or a variety of 

 one of the other species. L. aenea can be readily distinguished 

 from all the other known species by its rugose sculpture, dense 

 puncturation, very slightly angled thorax, short mandibles, and the 

 acute, narrow, terminal spur of the fore tibise in the male. No 

 reliable distinction can be derived from the colour ; the prevailing 

 one is brilliant golden-green, but coppery-green, dark bronze, and 

 even blue are occasionally seen. The female is, as in all of this 

 genus, more deeply punctured than the male. 



Lamprima aurata. Latreille. 



Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., XVII., p. 278. 



This species comes next to L. aenea in priority of description. 

 It is well described by W. S. Macleay in the " Horse Entomo- 

 logicse." It seems to have been taken for L aenea by Donovan, 

 Guerin and Castelnau, and is no doubt the L. fulgida of Boisduval, 

 Burmeister, and Dupont. The female is the L. cuprea Latreille. 

 The exact habitat of this species is not known to me. I find in 

 the old Macleay collection two males and three females but without 

 locality, while among all the more recent collections of Coleoptera 

 which I have had from all parts of the country, I have only one 

 specimen, and that is labelled " Darling River." 



In general appearance the resemblance to L. Latreillei is very 

 great. Both are of a brilliant golden-green, with a coppery 

 effulgence on the head, bvit as a rule the colour is more golden 

 and less green than in Latreillei, but the true specific differences 

 between the two are to be found in the more punctured thorax, 

 and slightly rugose elytra, the short, obtuse pointed mesosternum, 

 and the less numerously and regularly dentated fore tibise. The 

 tibial spur of the male is very broadly scuriform or almost fan 

 shaped, thereby differing much from L. aenea. 



The females are generally of a reddish copper colour, and densely 

 punctui'ed. 



